1. Technical Field
Embodiments herein are related to the field of integrated circuit implementation, and more particularly to the implementation of memory power management.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computing systems may include one or more systems-on-a-chip (SoC), which may integrate a number of different functions, such as, graphics processing, onto a single integrated circuit. A computing system may include memory, either as a part of the SoC, or as a separate die from the SoC and coupled by a memory controller. Various memories may be included, one or more on the die with the SoC and one or more separate to the SoC. Memories may be a significant part of the power consumption of a computing system, so for portable computing systems, such as, for example, laptops, smartphones, and tablets, it may be desirable to reduce the power consumption of one or more memories in the computing system.
One way of reducing the power consumption of a memory is remove power from the memory when it is not in use. For a volatile memory, however, the removal of power may result in a loss of data. A method for reducing power in a volatile memory without losing any data is to place the volatile memory into a data retention mode. A data retention mode may refer to a mode in which a memory may retain the data, but power consumption is reduced by limiting read and write operations to the memory, and reducing the supply voltage level to portions of the memory, such as, one or more memory sub-arrays, for example.
The lower voltage levels necessary for a data retention mode may require the use of a regulated power supply. A potential issue with the use of a regulated power supply is that a voltage drop may be introduced when switching a sub-array from an operational power supply to the regulated power supply due to the sudden increase in load on the regulated supply from the added sub-array.
A voltage regulation method is, therefore, desired that can respond quickly as sub-arrays are switched to and from the regulated supply. A system is disclosed herein that may provide for a voltage regulator capable of stabilizing quickly in response to sudden changes in loading, thereby reducing the magnitude of voltage drops.